CD Players & Transports

The CD lives on — and sounds superb on a good machine. A CD player reads the disc and converts it straight to analogue with a built-in DAC. A CD transport only reads and passes the digital signal to an external D/A converter — the audiophile separation of drive and conversion.

The choice is simple: if you already own a good DAC (or a streamer with digital input), take the transport. If you want a complete one-box solution, take the player. In both cases the drive quality counts — precise reading is the basis for everything else.